Ways to Deal with Spam, Pharming, and Phishing

Written September 2007

Are you sick of being spammed, pharmed, and phished? Is antivirus and antispyware software the total solution? This brief article provides a few practical ways to reduce these annoyances from occurring.

Spamming

• Good spam filters are needed for your email inboxes. Without them, you may find yourself with hundreds of emails per day.

• Carefully choose what e-newsletters you subscribe to.

• Don't participate in being lured-in by spam advertising. The odds are against getting free-stuff through spam advertising anyway.

Pharming

• Purchase antivirus and web filtering software that blocks malware payloads, IPS cross-site scripting, traffic redirects, and malicious web sites.

• Don't enter personal information at web site dynamic forms you visit.

• Learn to read URL addresses and see where you are really at.

Phishing

• Check email links and make sure you are emailing the right person. Sometimes a misleading email address is behind the name provided for the email address.

• Check the URL and make sure you were not redirected to a mirrored website.

Summary

Surfing and moving around the Internet can allure us to visit websites, open unknown email, and give personal information without much thought. Think about what you are doing, where you are going, and who you are communicating with while on the Internet.  Be forewarned and be cautious, your worst nightmare may be disguised in a pretty little package. Today's firewalls and antivirus software works, but only to a point.

About the Author:
 

Debbie Jensen, an expert writer for business and technology for Genesis Global Networks, has a Bachelor's Degree in Visual Communication (Multimedia). With her twenty year history of creative expressions and formalized study of Information Technology of digital print/web design and development, she is now publishing articles about networking for Genesis Global Networks.

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3. Know Your Network Enemy

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4-Ways to Deal with Spam, Pharming, and Phishing September 2007

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